Piers Akerman – Monday,March 11,2013 (5:47am)

AFTER another particularly dirty state election campaign, Labor was smashed in Western Australia.

While the debris is still to settle, it is apparent that the runaway result has enormous federal implications and Prime Minister Julia Gillard will clearly be the author of her own defeat if she retains the leadership until the next election.

Even though she was told not to come to the State during the campaign by Opposition leader Mark McGowan, the firm rejection was not enough to remove the taint of Gillard and her policies and prevent them enveloping the race.

Re-elected Premier Colin Barnett was absolutely correct when he said that Gillard’s banishment was a mistake.
“Mark McGowan was standing as a Labor leader, and not to have a Labor Prime Minister appear in the state I think actually weakened further the image of Labor in this state.
“You cannot be a Labor or a Liberal leader and then distance yourself from your own party and expect to get elected.”
With just under three-quarters of the vote counted at the weekend, the Liberal-Nationals had won 57 per cent of the two-party preferred vote, Labor has held 43 per cent.

At the close of counting Saturday night, Liberal Party had secured as many as 34 seats enough to govern in its own right without its Nationals coalition partners, the Nationals party has won 8 and Labor has held 19.

A number of State Labor politicians blamed federal Labor with former minister Alannah MacTiernan calling for Gillard to be dumped.

“There’s no doubt that the voters in WA do not see Julia Gillard as a leader … and it’s the Labor people telling you this,” she said.

“I don’t want to be horrible … (but) you can’t be a leader when people don’t want you as their leader.

“It may be very unfair,” she said, before adding that “absolutely, I’m sorry it is very clear” when asked if Gillard should be replaced as leader.

She said it was “hard to imagine we could perform worse” if Rudd was leader.

Traditional Labor seats, including Perth, fell to the Liberals and high-profile Labor recruits like 7 newsreader Reece Whitby in the seat of Morley were ignored.

Many voters at polling booths complained of the political reporting by The West Australian and Channel 7, both owned by Kerry Stokes.

More good news came as the Independents were wiped out and the Green vote slumped.

Labor’s campaign must have drained its coffers and placed heavy demands on its union backers.

Former Labor premiers Bob Carr and Morris Iemma have gone to war over who was responsible for the rise of Eddie Obeid amid warnings that corruption hearings involving the notorious powerbroker will have dire consequences for the party at the federal election.Senator Carr, now the Foreign Affairs Minister, has accused Mr Iemma, his successor as premier, of a serious error by allowing Mr Obeid ‘’special status’’ in his government.‘’I’m sure that Morris Iemma, a very decent - decent and honest figure - would reflect that it was a cardinal mistake to allow Obeid that special status and privilege,’’ Senator Carr says in comments that will go to air on Monday night on the ABC program Four Corners…

Mr Iemma rejected Mr Carr’s assessment, insisting he had no special access. ‘’He had a status all right: cabinet minister, conferred on him by Bob Carr,’’ Mr Iemma said of Mr Obeid.

‘’I don’t know what special status he’s referring to. He was a cabinet minister in Bob’s government. He was a backbencher in my government.’’

Just when you think Australia takes the booby prize for global warming madness, along comes Britain:

...the giant Drax power station in Yorkshire… is one of the biggest and most efficiently run coal-fired power stations in the world… and it supplies seven per cent of all the electricity used in Britain…

But as a result of a change in Government policy, triggered by EU rules, ...Drax will embark on a £700 million switch away from burning coal for which it was designed, in order to convert its six colossal boilers to burn millions of tons a year of wood chips instead.

Most of these chips will come from trees felled in forests covering a staggering 4,600 square miles in the USA…

The theory is that, by gradually switching to wood — or ‘biomass’ as it is officially known — Drax will eventually save millions of tons of CO2 from going every year into the atmosphere, thereby helping to prevent climate change and save the planet…

What forced Drax to embark on the switch from coal to ‘biomass’ was ministers’ decision last year to give any coal-fired power station which switched to ‘biomass’ the same, near-100 per cent ‘renewable subsidy’ that it already gives to the owners of onshore wind farms…

When the experts at Drax did their sums, they could see how, if they stayed with coal, they would gradually be priced out of business by a carbon tax which will eventually make their electricity become twice as expensive…

Note it is still Liberal policy to buy coal-fired power stations just to close them.

Professor Tim Flannery late last year said “rainforests are also being stressed by the warming, with many species at their limits of temperature tolerance andfacing increased risk of extinction‘’ as the government’s Climate Commission unveiled its 14th report on global warming.

But the new international research, led by the UK’s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, used 22 sophisticated climate modelling computer systems and programs incorporating plant biology to explore the response of tropical forests in the Americas, Africa and Asia to greenhouse-gas-induced climate change.

“A number of previous analyses have investigated potential vulnerability of tropical forests under climate change. Some ... suggest that anthropogenically induced climate change across Amazonia could cause catastrophic losses of forest cover and biomass - die-back,’’ their peer-reviewed report, published in the respected journal Nature Geoscience, says.

“We find the possibility of climate-induced damage to tropical rainforests in the period to year 2100 ... might be lower than some earlier studies.’’…

The research says rainforests would not be destroyed by 2100 even under computer modelling which factored in a “business as usual’’ scenario where industry does not cut its greenhouse gas emissions.

BARRIE Cassidy: Now Scott Morrison, how do you plan to notify residents when asylum-seekers move into the neighbourhood, how do you do that? How will you do it? How will you notify that asylum-seekers move into the neighbourhood? Is it a letter-box drop, how do you do it? . . . Is that when the letter-box drop comes in? Why do residents then need to know? Why do they need to know? What sets asylum-seekers apart? Why do they need to know they’re living next door to an asylum-seeker? . . . Are you not overreacting to one case of an alleged indecent assault?

Supported by his lesbian sister, her partner, his wife Margie and his daughters, Mr Abbott said that when he claimed three years ago during a television interview that he felt ‘’a bit threatened’’ by homosexuals, he had been trying to guard a family secret.

He had only just been told by his sister she was a lesbian.

‘’Now I couldn’t talk about that then because it was deeply personal and deeply private,’’ he said. ‘’But certainly they were very tough times for our family, hence my comment, because the cohesion of our family was threatened at that time. But I’m pleased to say we’re all in a better space now than we were then.’’

UPDATE

Abbott was “threatened” then as ABC Melbourne listeners on talkback seem threatened today to hear Abbott is actually thoughtful and compassionate. The bile being tipped over him this morning comes from people clearly frightened that their belief in the monstrosity of the Liberals is being threatened, and that voters might warm to a nice guy. One caller even likened him to a wife-basher.

Anyone doubting the ABC has developed an overwhelmingly Leftist audience should run the tape. (Mind you, presenter Rafael Epstein, filling in for Jon Faine, was scrupulously fair.)

UPDATE

Liz Hayes had an odd habit of thinking all women hold her views on Abbott, Christianity, abortion and Gillard’s deceitful speech. Is it that she’s never met anyone in her social circle not of the Left? From ”Extra Minutes - reporter discussion”:

Tony Abbott is Catholic. And on all of his upbringing has been conservative with Catholic views and that’s informed a lot of his thinking, and some would argue, decision-making… And that’s what we’re frightened of as women, that he’s going to tell me how I’m going to conduct my life and what control I’m allowed to have over my body. There the things that’s I think he’s having to hurdle. And that’s where Julia Gillard punched him in the gizzards frankly over whether he was a misogynist or a sexist. And he has given them some ammunition. He has said some fairly unpleasant things over in the past… Do we trust him?

What could the federal Liberals do with the kind of ammunition already used by state Liberals?:

While politicians from both major parties said local priorities dominated the election, they noted that state Liberals also campaigned on federal issues including the mining tax, carbon tax, division of the GST and increased flow of asylum-seekers.

‘’We are united in opposing new regulation and legislative changes that affect our ability to report and investigate as well as invest and compete in a digital and multi-platform media economy,’’ said a letter sent to Senator Conroy by The Newspaper Works, an industry group representing all major print media companies, including Fairfax Media and News Ltd.

‘’New regulations that inhibit the media will severely undermine our sector’s ability to uncover and report on matters about which the public has a right to know...”

Where on earth is the evidence that the media needs taming? And that the good of the muzzle outweighs the harm?

Ms Gillard cautioned a Sydney radio broadcaster, 2GB’s Ben Fordham, after he raised the Victoria Police investigation. Fordham said: “I’m not talking about political drama, I’m talking about a police investigation that is currently going on, now you concede that money . . .”

Ms Gillard replied that he should be careful, saying of the investigation: “That’s got nothing to do with me.”

Victoria Police has consistently refused to confirm or deny to journalists whether the Prime Minister is a “person of interest” but Ms Gillard said she knew she had been excluded from consideration.

Of course, Gillard insists she did nothing wrong, witnessed documents properly, did not know of her boyfriend’s scams and did not profit from them.

POLICE are bracing for an escalation in gangland violence after a matriarch of the infamous Hamzy crime family was shot four times at her front door yesterday.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal the woman, an aunt to Supermax prison inmate Bassam Hamzy, was shot at point blank range in the legs as she opened the front door of her unit ...

Police have unofficially linked the shooting with another that occurred 20 minutes later, also in Auburn, when shots were fired at the house next door to that of convicted drug dealer Hakan Goktas, 39…

The two shootings took place hours before revelations emerged in yesterday’s The Sunday Telegraph that police were left shocked and angered after a senior member of the BFL gang [of which Hamzy is a member] was granted bail last week over a kneecapping at Bass Hill on February 9 this year.

===…“My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”…—2Cor 12:9

Are you in a situation today where no matter what you do, things aren’t getting better?

Beloved, the Lord has said that His strength is made perfect in your weakness. This means that when you say, “I can,” God “cannot” in your life.

So turn to Him and say, “I cannot,” and watch as His “I can” flows mightily into your situation to save you, and empower you to do what you cannot do.http://josephprince.com/
===Speak God’s Word and reign over the things that the people of the world are afraid of! Check out today's devotional. Be sure to click "like" to help spread the word! Thanks, all! http://bit.ly/XW07Me
===This is a very important topic. Curriculum comes first, but classroom management, the dissemination of information, the demeanour of the teacher aren't specified by curriculum and so are negotiable with the students. I recall in my first year locking horns with a student I later found was woken by his drunk dad wielding an iron bar in the morning. I only wanted him to do his homework and work in class. I didn't get far with him. Or another student I had placed on detention (year 10) for not bringing anything to class to do work. He never showed. He grouped up with others who also didn't bring equipment and didn't go to detention. Finally his mum showed, wanting to speak to me and my head teacher. She wanted me sacked for making her son's life miserable. He couldn't have lunch without fearing meeting me on the playground and hearing me ask him about seeing me for detention. He might, out of frustration, go back to his year 8 habit of stealing cars and going for joy rides. I transferred out of the school soon after. I saw the boy's name ten years later. At age 25 he had robbed and stabbed to death a news agent for $10. I don't blame myself, but it puts into perspective issues faced by our kids at school. In public schooling kids are exposed to the worst and best of behaviour. They need to know that life goes on and it is our duty to grow and achieve our best. I believe in God and am motivated by that, but I'm not supposed to take that very far in my secular school teaching. But I can carry that as I engage with kids over the curriculum, and let them see that things are worth standing up for. That little things matter, and that nothing is impossible, but not all change is desirable.
===Two years ago, Japan was hit by an earthquake and a tsunami unprecedented in history. The tragedy took more than 20,000 lives.

Following this disaster, the IDF sent a delegation of doctors to help the survivors. Now, two years later, we remember the victims.
===Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy]. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.—Isaiah 53:4–5, AMP

Isaiah 53:4–5 is proof forevermore of the Lord’s love for you and His desire for you to be whole.

How important is your healing and health to Him? It’s so important that He Himself paid the heavy and terrible price for your wholeness.

When Mel Gibson’s The Passion Of The Christ was released, people complained that the scourging scene was too graphic and violent. The truth is that it portrayed only a fraction of what our Lord really suffered on our behalf.

Jesus was violently scourged beyond human recognition by the Roman torture equipment. His flesh was shredded to the point His bones were exposed, starkly white amidst the blood and torn muscles.

He bore the stripes so that we don’t have to. His body was broken so that ours can be whole, and by His stripes, we have been healed. Keep meditating on this powerful truth and see His healing and divine health manifest in your body!

This post is from today’s Meditate & Believe Right daily devotional. Click on the link to sign up for this series of devotionals and have it delivered to your mailbox daily!http://josephprince.com/meditate/
===Now this is a sunset. Amazing capture by Hirsty Photography, well done mate.

BEST CONVERSATION EVER!!
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4 Her
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===4 her .. so she knows how I see her
===Contrary to early expectations, the closest friendship among the competitors of this season’s Israel’s Master Chef was formed between Elinor Rahamim, a Jewish settler from Tekoah from an Israeli settlement in the northern Judean hills in the West Bank and Salma Fayumi, a Muslim nurse from Kfar Qasm.http://sizedoesntmatter.com/peace/a-c-t-for-peace-co-existence-on-the-set-of-master-chef-israel/
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===Give God’s Word priority in your daily life and see good success! Check out today's devotional. Be sure to click "like" to help spread the word! Thanks all!http://bit.ly/XVZiTz
===
===CORBY STIRS CARR FROM SLOTH

So Bob Carr belatedly attempts to rescue a damsel in distress? How chivalrous of the appointed one.

The sentence was a ludicrous one. The evidence that allowed such a sentence was astonishingly flawed. Evidence that supported her case was blatantly suppressed.

Everything about her trial reeked of Indonesian and Australian corruption.

Schapelle Corby’s guilt or innocence might be debatable except that it makes no sense to cart 4 kilo of Aussie hooch to where it’s worth a mere fraction of what it’s worth here.

“Eight years is long enough”, so sayeth the aesthetically-deprived appointed one.

Carr, in his short bumbling stint in Foreign Affairs, has shown no interest whatsoever in going in to bat for “errant” Aussies if it means offending his diplomatic counterparts.

He has written a letter guaranteeing Schapelle’s good conduct if released on bail in Indonesia. How gallant of him and how can he possibly guarantee anything of the sort?

If 0.0001% of the $A500 million Labor gifted to an Indonesian schools program found its way under the judicial table, Schapelle would have been back in Australia before they could divvy it up.

How strange that Indonesian people smugglers serving time here have been immediately released after one complaining phone call from the President’s Office.

After all, if we dare have the temerity to detain Indonesia’s people smugglers, Indonesian government officials suffer a severe loss of income.

If the appointed one possessed an ounce of testicular gumption he would catch the next plane to Djakarta, grab Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono by the lapels and yell this into his face:

“Listen here you corrupt Islamic ape, if you want one more cent from Aussie taxpayers call the warden at Kerobokan Prison right now and tell him that I will meet him at Denpasar Airport in 2 hours... and he better have Ms Corby with him.”

It’s a disgrace... but no less of a disgrace than Carr’s and Gillard’s wasted aid largesse.
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About Me

I'm author of History in a Year by the Conservative Voice aka History of the World in a Year by the Conservative Voice.

I'm the Conservative Voice.

I'm looking to make contact with those who might use my skill.

I have an m-audio mobile pre amp fed by the audiotechnica 2041sp condensor mic pack. Prior to 15/4/06, I'd used a Shure sm-58 that required a nuclear blast to register a sound or the internal mic of my aged imac, which has a penchance to recording my breathing. I also used a Griffin itrip, until the community convinced me it was not hiding my talent as well as the other mics.

I am a Writer and an occasional Math Teacher (Sir, what's the occasion?). I like to sing, having no instrumental talent (cannot even clap in time, and yes, I'm aware singing badly IS obnoxious).

I have performed the finale to Les Miserables before an audience of 500. I have also sung before a similar audience (students, parents) renditions of 'I Will' (Beatles), 'Mr Cairo' (Jon Vangelis) and 'I am Australian' (Seekers). Now I seek another profession because the audience hates me ..